Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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378. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the current and capital costs involved with each action item in the Interim Climate Action Plan under his Department’s responsibility. [32698/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has a number of actions under the Interim Climate Action Plan.

Action 14: Strengthen our delivery of public funding for basic and applied research to underpin government policy, meet our decarbonisation objectives and open up new economic opportunities

- My Department has recently launched its consultation on the next National Research & Innovation Strategy and the areas of climate research and grand challenges are explicitly considered. No specific or discrete current and capital expenditure is currently allocated. An allocation for a new National Grand Challenges Programme is expected under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

- SFI currently operates a challenge based funding programme, the SFI Future Innovator Prize Programme. It is expected that announcements will be made in the coming weeks which will reflect allocation of funding to address challenges, including those related to climate, under this programme.

- SFI recently launched a new SFI Infrastructure Programme Call.The SFI Research Infrastructure Programme supports the research community in building and sustaining the required infrastructural capacity to accomplish high-quality, high-impact and innovative research in areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics that demonstrably enhance and support enterprise competitiveness and societal development in Ireland. This particular call is being run in partnership with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and will see co-funding of infrastructure (subject to international peer review) aligned to the research topics of particular relevant to SEAI which include wind energy, smart buildings, smart grids, transport, energy efficiency and more.

Action 50: Skill-up current contractors/other industry players in deep retrofit, NZEB and new technology installations

- The EU Upskilling Pathways Recommendation and the Skills to Advance programme are funded through the overall further education and training budget, and any provision specifically in relation to climate action elements would be within this overall allocation. Skills to Advance is funded through the National Training Fund (NTF) and there is an overall allocation of €23.3m in 2021 for this provision. Funding from the NTF is provided for through the annual Estimates process.

- In 2020 €500,000 was allocated within the July Jobs Stimulus to support development work to provide for the expansion of the National Retrofitting Programme. This funding was targeted to the development and rollout of NZEB programme development for reskilling of workers in anticipation of a significant expansion of provision in 2021. For 2021 €8m was allocated to supporting retrofit specific skills. This will provide up to 500 places on new specialist retrofitting training courses targeted towards unemployed persons, comprising a 10/12 week reskilling programme for unemployed persons to include training allowances in lieu of welfare payments.

Action 67: Set a trajectory for commencing and implementing a deep energy retrofit programme for the higher and further education sectors

- Undertake an updated space survey of the higher education sector, to fully ascertain the baseline with regard to energy efficiency and inform future capital investment

- Cost: Supports from external specialists at key points has cost the HEA in the region of €38,100 (exc. VAT) to date. The HEA are also seeking to develop a platform to manage and utilise the space survey data. The work done to date in this area has cost in the region of €29,600 (exc. VAT).

- Map the technical and administrative capacity required to design, deliver and oversee a deep energy retrofit programme for the higher and further education sectors

- Cost– this is cost neutral

- Progress implementation of the Energy Efficiency and Decarbonisation Pathfinder Programme, including lessons learned, and assess potential for new projects

- Cost– The cost associated with the DFHERIS and SEAI co-funded Energy Efficiency and Decarbonisation Pathfinder Programme to date is €18m. This includes €6m which was committed to the first phase of the programme which identified 8 pilot projects across the higher education sector. A further €12m was recently announced for a second Pathfinder programme call with a view to project delivery in 2022.

Action 170: Support, through the education system, the required initiatives in the Just Transition through existing and new strategies being developed, and through ongoing collaboration with relevant Government Departments and Agencies

- HCI: 11 courses, 223 places cost €1.4m

- Springboard+: 14 courses, 310 places, cost €1.12m